Europe-Middle East-Africa Refugee Crisis General Thread

[Tender Branson]

The leader of the FPÖ in Burgenland, who is also responsible for police matters in the state's SPÖ-FPÖ coalition, has ordered the state police to conduct additional border security measures starting in the next days. 150 more police officers should be deployed to the border crossings to check trucks coming in.

The police has refused that order though, saying they are already too strained for that new job because they already pick up hundreds of illegals accross the "green border" each day and have to register them and transport them to the migrant centers ...

http://derstandard.at/2000021592662/Tschuertz-ordnet-Grenzkontrollen-an-Polizei-verweigert-Befehl

[Tender Branson]

2.500 migrants slept at the Salzburg rail station last night, the Red Cross provided the help needed:

[Tender Branson]

The situation in Eastern Austria is now relatively calm, with Hungary blocking the railway stations in Budapest.

Some migrants are taking trains outside of Budapest, but not more than 100 arrived in Vienna yesterday.

Most are now coming over the "green border" in Burgenland via cars and trucks (from smugglers) and then are directly taken to camps where they are registered, taken care of and where they can file for asylum. That's about 200-400 per day, or 6.000-12.000 per month. Most are travelling on to Germany though ...

[Tender Branson]

A young migrant boy tries to argue with Hungarian police about opening the gates to the railway station:

[Tender Branson]

There's also another route:

Syrians fleeing war find new route to Europe – via the Arctic Circle

They tried the shores of Libya, the islands of Greece, and the plains of the Balkans. Now it has emerged that Syrians fleeing civil war have found another route to the safety of Europe: the Arctic Circle.

Dozens of Syrians have trekked to the far north of Russia this year in an unlikely bid to reach a little-known Arctic border crossing with Norway. Up to 20 Syrians a month are then crossing into the tiny Norwegian town of Kirkenes, which lies around 2,500 miles north of Damascus, and where the average daily temperature hovers just below freezing.

The town is the northernmost point of the Iron Curtain Trail, a cycle path that traces the boundary between western and eastern Europe during the cold war.

“It’s a relatively new thing – it started maybe half a year ago,” said superintendent Thomas Pettersen, the only policeman on duty in Kirkenes police station on Saturday.

“You can say that maybe about five to 20 people try it a month. There have been a couple of people who have tried by bicycle. The rest are being driven over in Russian cars. It’s very easy for them to cross – they can just sit in a Russian car, and come into Norway. And it’s legal.”

According to Sør-Varanger Avis, a local newspaper, 133 asylum-seekers have used this method in 2015, most of whom are Syrians.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/aug/29/syrian-refugees-europe-arctic-circle-russia-norway

[Tender Branson]

See, sh*t like this is why Europe should aggressive attempt to resettle refugees from Turkey and Jordan, so that they aren't forced to literally go through the tundra to receive asylum.

Why should only we do that ?

It was the US that stirred up the hornets nests in AfPak, Iraq, Syria and Libya and brought misery and despair to people's lives there so that they had to flee.

What about Nobel Peace Prize winner Obama ordering charter planes to Turkey/Jordan/Lebanon and pick up the millions of refugees there and resettle them in the US ?

[Tender Branson]

The situation in Hungary is pretty bizarre today:

Apparently, the police unblocked the railway station in Budapest in the morning and let 300 migrants board a train.

The migrants thought that the train would go to Vienna, but instead it was re-routed next to a city with a migrant camp where police was waiting to pick up the migrants from the train and transport them there by bus.

Now the train is there, people refuse to get out and some are just sitting on the railway tracks, screaming and protesting against being taken to the camps ...

[Tender Branson]

Football hooligans are attacking migrants in Hungary:



Meanwhile, about 1.000 migrants disappeared from camps in Hungary and started marching towards Austria on the major highway ...



Pretty dangerous with cars passing them at 80 mph ...

[Tender Branson]

The Austrian football team today:

[Tender Branson]

Meanwhile, delegations from Hungary and Bulgaria have visited Israel to study their high-tech border fence, which they might apply against the refugees ...

[Tender Branson]

During the night, Chancellors Faymann and Merkel announced that the thousands of migrants who are marching on Hungarian highways to Austria, will be picked up with 60 buses close to the border and transferred to Austria and Germany. Austria has already sent the buses and 3.000 migrants have been brought to Vienna and Burgenland last night:



"Aufgrund der heutigen Notlage an der ungarischen Grenze stimmen Österreich und Deutschland in diesem Fall einer Weiterreise der Flüchtlinge in ihre Länder zu".

"Because of the current emergency situation on the Hungarian border, the governments of Austria and Germany have allowed the migrants to continue their travel into our countries." - joint statement by Faymann and Merkel.

[Tender Branson]

10.000 migrants are expected here today.

6.500 have already arrived and many of them already went on to Germany.

It is estimated that there are still around 40.000-50.000 in Hungary waiting to come and of course we know that Macedonia has 3.000-5.000 crossing their borders every day, so this won't end soon.

[Tender Branson]

Why would you think it would end?  I don't understand, you think letting a bunch in will stop the flood?  If drowning by the thousands doesn't stop them, opening the gates certainly won't either.

I didn't say it will end. On the contrary: With the people now coming in in droves and the governments letting them in, those who are here will call their relatives in the Middle-East and even more will come. This is only the beginning. We are at the start of an invasion.

[Tender Branson]

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Yeah, a 21-year old computer operator is definitely the person who should apply for asylum in Central Europe, coming from "war-torn" Lahore, Pakistan ...

Guy would probably be better off somewhere in India ...

[Tender Branson]

Last year 3,600 asylum seekers arrived in Finland. The estimate for this year is up to 30,000 asylum seekers. That's an eightfold increase to the previous year. The flood gates are open, and Finland is set to become the new Sweden.

In a populist move to gather political points among those naive enough to support the wave of asylum seekers (and perhaps to deliberately annoy his coalition partner, the Finns Party), our Prime Minister Juha Sipilä (Centre Party) has decided to offer his own house in Kempele, Northern Finland, as an accomodation for circa 20 asylum seekers.

With the news of this spreading internationally, I can only guess that his decision will lead to an influx of thousands more.

http://yle.fi/uutiset/pm_sipila_pledges_oulu_home_to_refugees/8282824

I am amazed by Finland doing this, the Nordic country that could have saved itself. Why don't politicians see what's happening to Sweden? I'd surely feel f**ked if I would have voted for the Finns Party.

Don't worry, they are seeing it. But they are leading Europe into the abyss with their eyes wide open. In their quest to transform Europe into an impoverished wasteland like Syria and Africa ...

[Tender Branson]

The latest is that Austrian Chancellor Faymann called Orban's asylum policies "similar to the Holocaust", after which the Orban-government basically called on Faymann to go f**k himself.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/world-news/austrias-werner-faymann-likens-hungarian-pm-viktor-orbans-refugee-policies-to-nazi-deportations/articleshow/48938877.cms

[Tender Branson]

An Arab translator at Vienna train station recently estimated that 25-50% of the migrants arriving there "have no Syrian Arab dialect". He also spoke about a guy from Egypt who said that "now is the chance of his lifetime to sneak into Europe, using fake Syrian passports."

Oh man, try to defend that you naive leftists ...

[Tender Branson]

Deutsche Bahn is now using ICE high speed trains to move refugees across the country. People with regular tickets will have to find other trains. I feel things are really spiraling out of control now with tens of thousands of people entering Germany on a single weekend. The German government has no plan whatsoever beyond finding basic accommodations. What are we going to do with millions (!) of people with very little qualifications who have come to the country expecting to find the land of milk and honey? What about (genuine and warranted) security concerns? ISIS will use this opportunity to send fighters to Europe. I don't think we've had a momentous month or so in Europe since the fall of the Iron Curtain.

Don't worry, "Mhysa Merkel" will fix all of these problems ...

[Tender Branson]

Germany to introduce border controls this evening:

http://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/fluechtlinge-deutschland-fuehrt-voruebergehend-grenzkontrollen-ein-a-1052704.html

[Tender Branson]

An Arab translator at Vienna train station recently estimated that 25-50% of the migrants arriving there "have no Syrian Arab dialect". He also spoke about a guy from Egypt who said that "now is the chance of his lifetime to sneak into Europe, using fake Syrian passports."

I don't think anyone has claimed that it is just Arabic speaking people from Syria coming to Europe. Or that they are the only ones suffering from conflicts.

Also, seems fairly odd to suddenly single out Kurds and Christians as apparently not real refugees (though I guess it makes as much sense as the opposite position, held by some countries)

That's not the main point: the important point is that an increasing number of people from non-war zones are using the naive goodwill of the Germans/Austrian governments to sneak into these countries with fake passports or no papers at all, by destroying them before they arrive.

Anyway, the German government seems to pull the plug now because not only will they implement border controls starting this evening but also the Austrian Railway will stop all rail traffic to Germany from 5pm onwards at the request of the German government, which means the migrants will strand on the Salzburg/Bavarian border in the ten thousands in the next days and weeks ...

[Tender Branson]

So, Germany shuts the border and the trains to Germany are stopped - while Orban is sending all the migrants through to Austria by showing Faymann the middle-finger for his Holocaust comments (see above).

What this means is that Austria will have a MASSIVE migrant backlog in the next weeks.

I'm looking forward to the Upper Austria state election in 2 weeks when the SPÖ will drop to 10% and Faymann is hopefully history ...

[Tender Branson]

An Arab translator at Vienna train station recently estimated that 25-50% of the migrants arriving there "have no Syrian Arab dialect". He also spoke about a guy from Egypt who said that "now is the chance of his lifetime to sneak into Europe, using fake Syrian passports."

I don't think anyone has claimed that it is just Arabic speaking people from Syria coming to Europe. Or that they are the only ones suffering from conflicts.

Also, seems fairly odd to suddenly single out Kurds and Christians as apparently not real refugees (though I guess it makes as much sense as the opposite position, held by some countries)

That's not the main point: the important point is that an increasing number of people from non-war zones are using the naive goodwill of the Germans/Austrian governments to sneak into these countries with fake passports or no papers at all, by destroying them before they arrive.

Well, in that case you should deliver your main point and back it up with facts, rather than give a rather irrelevant number from one translator. Of course some will not follow the rules, as is always the case no matter if we talk migration or something else. What matters are how many and why. So, how many people are we talking about?

It's very hard to gather exact numbers from ILLEGALS. As Beezer said, who's going to check it ?

But is it so hard to believe it, now that Merkel & Faymann have "invited everyone in", that many are now trying to sneak in from not just Syria/Iraq and Af/Pak ?

[Tender Branson]

Update:

* After Germany closed the border at 5:30 pm and stopped all train travel, Austrian Chancellor Faymann has ordered no border controls on the Hungarian border.

* The decision by Germany to shut the border also had to do with the coming Octoberfest. The mix of drunk German hooligans & normal people and Muslim (non-alcohol-drinking) refugees incl. small kids was just too dangerous to keep migrants coming to Munich train station.

[Tender Branson]

Austria expects 60,000 migrants to enter the country today.

http://www.welt.de/politik/deutschland/article145529161/Oesterreich-rechnet-mit-60-000-Migranten-an-einem-Tag.html

Could someone fill me in on the Hungary/Austria situation? Has the Hungarian government just given up working with the Austrians on this?

Hungary is currently in the process of "emptying" the country from all migrants, while at the same time sending thousands of heavily-armed soldiers and military equipment to the border with Serbia to enforce the new tough law which starts tomorrow (rounding up all people who cross the border illegally and arrest them for up to 5 years). Also, Hungary today closed the last remaining open spot on the Serbian border by installing a huge metal gate at the railway link there, cutting off the railway line.

Orban is simply sending all the remaining migrants to Austria with buses and trains, as a retaliation for Faymann's comments that Orban's policies are like the "Holocaust". Orban simply knows that Faymann is a total douche and now shows him the middle-finger, while we have to deal with the influx ...

[Tender Branson]

Austria meanwhile has introduced border controls at the Hungarian border "similar to those of Germany".

3.000 soldiers will be deployed to the border as well, to help out the police.

But nothing like in Hungary: They won't be heavily armed and rather help the local police register the migrants and take them to care facilities accross the country.